You might remember soccer player and communication studies senior Esteban Suárez Gómez from social media a few months ago — he was named Temple Athletics’ Scholar-Athlete of the Month in October 2020. In fact, he didn’t even realize he had been given the honor until a friend saw him at training and congratulated him. After a difficult year of uncertainty, lack of motivation and lots of training, the award came as an uplifting surprise to Suárez Gómez. Now, as he looks forward to his graduation in May 2021, he is assessing the range of possibilities available to him in communications and beyond.

Born and raised in Mexico City, Suárez Gómez transferred to Temple University at the age of 20 from Universidad Anahuac in Querétaro, about three hours outside Mexico City. Though he had an opportunity to play soccer professionally through a unique program at Universidad Anahuac that allowed him to study business administration simultaneously, he quickly realized that the major was not his best fit. After meticulous research on which major would match his strengths, Suárez Gómez settled on communication studies at Klein College of Media and Communication because it would allow him to explore the greatest variety of topics and career possibilities, eventually honing in on specific interests.

This semester, Suárez Gómez is down to his last course of his undergraduate education. Though he could have graduated this January, his plans all changed when the soccer season came to a halt. When he found out that the fall soccer season would be delayed and pushed to the spring, he acted quickly to take advantage of his last year, dropping one class so that he could stay another semester and play his final season.

“We just trained last semester,” he said. “It was kind of hard just to find motivation without any official games, just training with the team. So, it’s been a hard year, because it’s been more than 12 months without playing an official game, or even against other people. That’s why I’m also, like, super excited about this season, just to finish it on a high note.”

The Scholar-Athlete award came at the perfect time for Suárez Gómez, as the combination of the pandemic, not being able to see family and not being able to play soccer piled on top of the usual demands of  school and training; “To be honest, it was a hard semester,” he said.

But when his athletic advisor Victoria Perri nominated him to be Scholar-Athlete of the Month, she saw the part of Suárez Gómez that persevered through all of that.

“Esteban exhibits a genuine passion to excel in the classroom and on the soccer field,” she said in an email. “He has far surpassed our expectations and continues to make Temple University and Temple Athletics very proud.”

Now, Suárez Gómez plans on using the year of his visa that extends past graduation to work and gain experience in sports content creation, with educational goals of eventually enrolling in a master’s program. At that point, he said, he might study sports journalism, but ultimately feels that it would be hasty to settle on such a major life decision this far in advance. Instead, he said, he would prefer to work and gain experience for a year first. 

Keeping his options open to additional experience and education, Suárez Gómez knows that Temple’s faculty and staff will always have his back and continue to celebrate his wins on the field and in the job market.

“It is a privilege to work with such an ambitious student. We are all excited to see how many more accomplishments are to come!” Perri said of Suárez Gómez and the potential that lies in his future.